Henry III Fine Rolls: Blog

Posts Tagged ‘bishop-elect of Lyons’

I have had a most interesting letter from Margaret Howell about my fine of the month on Henry III and the Sicilian affair. She observes that it was Huw Ridgeway, in his doctoral thesis, who first grasped the centrality of Henry III’s Savoyard kinsmen to the project. She points this out on p.132 of her Eleanor of Provence. Margaret also thinks I have under-estimated the role of the Savoyards in the second phase of the project initiated by Pope Alexander IV in 1255. She notes in particular the way Henry III, in June 1255, commissioned Thomas of Savoy, Peter of Savoy and Philip of Savoy, bishop elect of Lyons, to recruit knights for his service. I am sure Margaret is right about this. However, I am still struck by the way neither Thomas nor Peter of Savoy seem to have been involved with either negotiating or accepting the deal of 1255. They must surely have regarded it as very unfortunate, for themselves as much as for the king. Essentially, the terms meant the Savoyards would never have the resources to recruit an army to intervene in Sicily on Henry’s behalf. Henry could ask them to retain knights as much as he liked, but he had no money with which they could do it.

Huw Ridgeway’s thesis is ‘The politics of the English royal court 1247-1265 with special reference to the role of the aliens’ (University of Oxford, 1983).